Addressing false claims — a statement from Sangduen “Lek” Chailert on behalf of Elephant Nature Park

MEDIA STATEMENT

For immediate release

22 May 2013

The following is a statement from Save Elephant Foundation founder Sangduen “Lek” Chailert on behalf of Elephant Nature Park:

“Recently Save Elephant Foundation has come under attack by detractors seeking to discredit our work and our elephant conservation efforts. We make every effort to not get involved with politics or address false claims from those seeking to attack us because we work for the animals and that is our number one priority. These attacks regarding our foundation, our staff and our animals has been a drain on the entire foundation’s energy and taken the focus off of our animals.

It has been reported that Hope, one of our teenage male elephants, had his tusks removed, was sold and supposedly died. This statement is entirely inaccurate. Hope never had tusks and still resides at Elephant Nature Park. He was never sold from our park and no harm has ever come to him. Our park is open to the public. We have volunteers who have visited us more than a dozen times. If anything were to happen at the park, it could never be covered up. People who visit us see everything that goes on because we have nothing to hide.

Tuberculosis is a concern at our park, however none of our elephants has the disease. We open our park to university and international veterinarians and the government to regularly test our elephants for TB. Should we even suspect an elephant to have TB, the elephant would immediately go into isolation. Additionally, should any cases of TB be reported, it would be made public.

Save Elephant Foundation is a Thai registered non-profit organization. We are required by law to provide annual reports to the government providing transparency regarding our funding, our spending and our progress. Claims regarding any sort of profit are false. Our registration with the Thai government can be found on our Web site, www.saveelephant.org and our annual report can be accessed via request.

The war against us will never end so long as people continue to use jealousy and hatred to attack us. We thank all of our supporters and volunteers who believe in us and urge anyone who has questions to please contact us directly.”